Fushigi Yugi

Purpose of Title~Fushigi Yuugi means Mysterious Play, which I guess is supposed to be like they're giving on a play in the book...Yu Watase
Rating~PG-13 for Nudity, Violence, Swearing and Mature Situations

Fushigi Yugi~~Summery of Volume 1

Fushigi Yugi is about a 15 year old girl named Miaka Yuki. She’s just a normal teenager, trying to get into a big school (if she can just keep her mind off food for a second...). She wanders with her friend Yui Hongo (Yui-chan) into a huge library, and springs to a juice machine. Her 100 yen coin falls and as she goes to get it, a mysterious red bird flies over her. Chasing after it, she meets Yui again and an ancient book falls to the ground off the shelves. Since Yui is an expert at ancient Chinese (???), she starts to read the book, and both of them are sucked into it. Looking around at a strange country side, some slave traders come by. Suddenly, as we’re about to lose the main character, a handsome young man with the Chinese symbol of “ogre” saves them both from the scary slave traders. Then, after the man leaves, Yui is taken away by a red light (Miaka doesn’t see this, because she’s fishing out a coin for the man as payment)back to the library to read what happens to Miaka. Miaka gets scared, then hops a ride on the back of a cart to the city of Konan. There she searches for the man who saved her, thinking he stole Yui. As friendly as she is, she follows a man to an abandoned portion of the city, and again things look bleak for our heroine, but then the man with ogre on his forehead appears and saves her again. Then he agrees to help her find Yui. While back in the village, the emperor arrives. Stupidly, Miaka jumps out of the crowd and asks him for part of his crown. She trips and accidentally pulls down a portion of his decorative cloth. Again, the ogre boy comes to save her (adding in a kiss as his “payment”), but she suddenly glows red and disappears. She sees Yui reading the book, calls out to her, but is sucked back into the hot guy’s arms. The emperor orders the guards to seize them both, instead of executing them. Once in the palace, they are locked in a dungeon, but Miaka gets them out (really funny scene with bubble gum) and they hide in a room with the bird that Miaka originally saw flying in the library, Tamahome (Sou Kishuku) explains the legend of Priestess of Suzaku. Then, as he’s talking Miaka finds food and gets lost from him, then meets a strange “girl” at the gate named Hotohori. She finds out it’s the emperor (a GUY!), and he takes her and Tamahome back to the castle. There he asks her to save Konan by getting the power of the Suzaku, and finding the Suzaki Seven. She finds out that Tamahome (the Crab) and Hotohori (the Sea Serpent) are two of them, so she has to find the other 5. Hotohori assembles all his scholars and soldiers to see if they are one of the seven. Miaka tests them by ticking them off, and they all go at her. She hides under a gazebo (???), and the soldier hits one of the pillars down, making it collapse. Tamahome saves her by diving and holding all the weight on his back, and swears to protect her. Then, as Tamahome can’t bear it anymore, a lady walks up and casually throws the heavy roof of the gazebo off of Tamahome. They thank her, and she kisses Tamahome (of course, Miaka gets mad, but she’s not jealous *wink wink*). The lady (Nuriko or Korin) swoons over Tamahome, as Miaka tries to make friends with the new found Suzaki. Nuriko treats Miaka like shi–I mean poo, but Miaka still tries to be friends with her. Nuriko admits that her love for Tamahome was only to get Miaka jealous, and she really likes Hotohori. Miaka goes to tell Hotohori that he should pay more attention to Nuriko, but instead he tells Miaka that he loves her, and when she’s done with collecting the Suzaki Seven, he is going to purpose to her. Nuriko is even angrier, but Miaka is worried that Tamahome doesn’t like her anymore. After another fight scene, she confesses her love to him, but he acts coldly and says “I’m sorry but I don’t feel the same way.” She faints of a fever and volume 1 ends. BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE!!(Don’t just rewind it yet!!) There’s a little Omake Video of the opening theme song in Japanese subtitles.
Update~The previous review was for the first volume only. As of then, I've rented the complete series, and also ended up buying it on VCD. I apologize in advance for not going into as much depth as I did before, but you'd be reading all night if I described each volume in full detail ^_^
After the first volume, Miaka is asked by Hotohori to find the remaining seven seals.